VISIONI | RAIY – In Conversation With Liliana Mele
"I had already studied theater, and being in Ethiopia the question arose spontaneously: I study a lot of Italian, French, English, Spanish theater, right? There must be a history of theater here in Ethiopia or even in Africa in general. So, I really felt a knowledge-gap, lack of information," actress Liliana Mele confesses.

Cinema, TV, dubbing, independent short films and theater, Liliana Mele has dedicated her life to acting. Her participation in Miss World Italy at the age of 17 launched her in the entertainment world. After her debut alongside Carlo Verdone in the cult film L’Amore è Eterno Finchè Dura (Love Is Eternal While It Lasts) she worked on several TV experiences that saw her interpreting different protagonist and co-protagonist roles.
Guest of the new series of VISIONI | RAIY, Liliana tells us about her debut in the world of acting, her academic career, the reverential love for theater that pushed her to research and explore the literature and the tradition of Ethiopian theater during the reign of Haile Selassie. A cultural but also personal research that she transformed into her master’s degree thesis in Arte e Scienze dello Spettacolo (Performing arts and Science)
VISIONI | RAIY is a series of conversations with Italian-Ethiopians artists and creatives. We talk about their life, work and vision—raiy in Amharic—delving into the different aspects of an Italian and Ethiopian identity, between presence and absence withing geographical, cultural and social boundaries.
VISIONI | RAIY is curated and produced by GRIOT in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Addis Abeba. The series is presented on the occasion of the XXI Week of The Italian Language in the World (18-24 October 2021)
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